Be a Hike Leader !
It’s easy to organize a hike, you only need to do a few things and be responsible :
Choose a hike online, something you want to see. tell others difficulty and approximate times. Don’t forget the slopes up and down ! The length is not the only thing creating difficulty. Some websites to research hikes around Lisbon :
you need a mobile app like wikiloc, alltrails, komoot to guide the group and not get lost
download the area you're going to hike on google maps offline too, just in case, could be useful. Others more advanced apps like Osmand on android can give you better information about the slopes on the way
watch for the weather the day before and the morning of the hike and warn people about it
Plan a few days before and warn people here and on others venues (with a link to the whatsapp group chat so they can join) if not enough people there are interested
Decide on a meeting point and hour, plan for people who will arrive late, warn what are the buses times, how to get there and if some come by car where the hike starts exactly (some might also come by Uber / Bolt, it is possible to join everyone at one point and share altogether multiple taxis, in that case warn people to install the app before)
Make sure to tell others if it’s a loop or from A to B (people coming by car need a way to go back to the start)
To know how many are going you can ask them to put a thumbsup emoji reaction to your post. Or they can copy paste a message with an increasing list of participants (they add their names). In the former case don’t forget to tell again about the hike when new people join the group because they won’t have access to the group chat history
Tell people what to bring on the hike (1.5L of water, picnic / snack, swimsuit if there is a beach, FULLY CHARGED PHONE, good walking shoes, hat etc.)
Count regularly people on the hike and don't lose them. bring more water just in case. a compass can be useful too, a knife too.
Give clear directions and take responsibility for group decisions because others won't. If someone suggests a change, you’re still responsible for the rest of the hike
Have your phone in non silent mode so that if someone is lost they can call you, they will know your number but not necessarily the phone number of others participants
take pictures during the hike and post them on the chat to make others interested in organizing or coming to more hikes ! Now you did one hike you can convince someone else to lead a hike and you’ll enjoy the next hike more !
Sending a message on the group like “Should we do sunday ? Should we start at 10h00 ? Should we do this trail” etc. You probably won’t be able to efficiently gather information to organize a hike this way. It’s better to simply organize a hike that is fit for you and you think would be fit for 5-10 people, post information, count the number of people interested by asking them to react with an emoji to your message and do the hike like this. Even 5 people joining your hike is enough ! You can read answers and figure out if you need to change something in the hike later on after posting the initial information. Put people in front of a organize hike so they can plan ahead in the week and think about it, not last minute. There is also no problem having multiple hikes per days, people will join the one best fit for their schedule / difficulty.